Should I go see a foot doctor if my big toe on my left foot is swollen and has pus coming out on the left side...And it bleeds every once and a while?But it hurts so bad if I start walking on it...I ...

he has had it since monday, up and down, from 100-104, he has been to emergency room, putting cold rags on back of neck, giving ibuprofin, tylenol, just cant keep it down, if you can help please do....

i seem to bruse realy easily, it may be cuz i have a pale complection and i am very skiny there for hav no fat to protect me, but i shd realy bruse too easily shd i? plz ...

Stacey W

how reliable are x rays, do they always show hairline fractures?

I think i may have fractured my 5th metatarsal, i dropped a pot bowl on it yesterday at breakfast and now its swollen, purple looking and im finding it difficult to move, is there much point in going to a & e today for like 4 hours just to tell me its not broken and to rest it?

It really hurts and its been 24 hours now....so does a fracture ALWAYS show on x ray because knowing my luck it wouldn't show and i'd have to go back in 3 weeks again.

Btw this happened with my wrist before they said it was broken, sent me home, then 2 week later, went back and was a scapfoid fracture - apparntly very common, just wondering if it was possible not to show up at first anywhere else in the body?

its the doctor looking at the x ray ,if hes capable to read an x ray , with so many fractures missed it makes you wonder if they know what they are looking at

Kerfie

go to a doctor immediately. What kind of question is that? Would you risk amputation in case a blood vessel broke and somehow an infection started?

Hairline fractures are invisible for the untrained eye. But that does not mean they are pointless. Even if a doctor can't see it on the X ray, there are other tests and exams and they will give you proper treatment.

Alternatively, just stay home and let us know how it goes three weeks from now... without any medical care.

Dagny Justice

It is possible that until you are moving it a lot more, a few days after the injury, that it wouldn't show.

Lucylu

well, provided the radiographer takes the xray correctly -with good positioning etc, and the radiologist looks carefully it will be difficult to not detect a fracture. however, if it is a hairline fracture they are much more difficult to see but the radiologists should be able to see it as they have special computer screens to view the images. i would go to a&e because you dont want the possibility of walking around with a broken bone that you dont know about.
btw, you have 8 bones in your wrist, your scaphoid is one of them, so before you did break your wrist, but specifically you broke your scaphoid. they will have asked you to go back 2 weeks later to check that your scaphoid is healing because sometimes the blood supply to this bone can be destroyed when you fracture it and so the bone will die! good luck

tolly

X-Rays are only one of many tools used by the doctors. Remember that they ask you questions and they usually feel the bone too.

If the doctor is stupid enough to miss something as basic as a simple fracture (yes, it's in all their expensive training manuals) - that is their fault, and you should make your feelings known.

If you don't like waiting - take a long book with you.

Why are you grousing here anyway? It doesn't sound life threatening. It's up to you if you want to go to A & E and bother the nurses.

champer

Probably worth having it looked at, but that's up to you. A&E is usually quieter in the mornings when all the overnight drunks, druggies and nutters have been dealt with.

It'd feel sore, be swollen and discoloured anyway if you had just bruised your toe badly. It may or may not show up on an x-ray.

In any case, the treatment at hospital if it's not out of alignment would probably be just strapping it to the next toe by way of a splint.

You could help yourself by keeping your foot up as much as possible and apply ice, a bag of frozen peas is handy here. Wear stiff-soled shoes or boots for support.

reggie

It is possible to miss a hairline fracture on an Xray. The view may be taken from just the wrong angle or the person reviewing the film could miss it

Cal

X-rays are only as good as the people reading them. They can also be a bit blurred if there is a lot of soft tissue swelling which is why a second X-ray a few days later can be clearer.

kid on the block

Go to A&E, they will advise you on how to manage your foot whether or not you have broken anything.

If the bone is not displaced it can be difficult to find a hairline fracture sometimes if the angle doesn't show it well. It sometimes shows up better after a few weeks because the healing process shows up more clearly than the original fracture.